1.1 How does my institution work?
A key role of a supporting students involved in student engagement activities is to help them to understand how the higher education institution actually operates.
This includes providing these students with a comprehensive overview of the policies, structures, and practices that shape your institution’s functions and which impact teaching, learning, and student life.
By gaining insight into these areas, students will develop a clearer understanding of the inner workings of the institution, the often complex organisational structure, administrative processes, academic policies, support services, etc that influence everything that is relevant for students, their learning experience and student life in general.
Furthermore, students involved in student engagement activities also ought to have a good understanding of the policies, structures, and practices that exist within their institution which affect student engagement itself. This includes detailed understanding of the mechanisms for student representation and participation in decision-making processes, but also information on how quality assurance is organised and the role of students in this – for example how student feedback is collected and utilised.
In this topic we also want to introduce a self-assessment tool on inclusive student engagement that has been developed as part of the InclusiPHE project. This tool will enable staff and students within higher education institutions to analyse the existing structures, policies, and practices around student engagement within their institutional context and with a specific focus on how inclusive and accessible it is. By engaging with this tool, users (esp. HEI leadership and student representatives) will gain valuable insights into the strengths and areas for development in their institution’s functioning in relation to inclusive student engagement.
The self-assessment tool can be found on the following link:
